Undergrad Program

Schell
Undergraduate Program

Welcome to the Yale Multidisciplinary Academic Program in Human Rights!

The Multidisciplinary Academic Program in Human Rights offers Yale undergraduates the opportunity to explore human rights from an interdisciplinary perspective, providing students with the analytical and practical skills necessary for human rights study and human rights-related careers. With administrative, financial and programmatic support from the Schell Center for International Human Rights, the Program connects students to faculty and peers with similar interests, supports student research projects and internship opportunities, and offers coherent career guidance in the field.

Human rights today constitute a profoundly influential moral language and legal system through which to understand contemporary global affairs, not simply political but also cultural, social, and economic. Anthropology, area studies, law, literature, philosophy, political science, and many other fields have explored human rights issues from their own particular disciplinary perspectives and with their particular methodologies. The Human Rights Program is meant to recognize this complexity and to support a diverse community of scholars across the university; since its founding in 2014, the Program has included students from a wide variety of departments, including biology, computer science, environmental studies, history, and economics.

The Program fosters community and provides opportunities beyond the classroom. Human Rights Scholars come together for social events, workshops, symposia, human rights-related talks, and the annual Senior Capstone Symposium; they learn from one another not just in their classes, but also in weekly dinners and mentorships. Throughout their time in the Program, students receive academic, summer and post-graduate advising, and the Schell Center is able to provide limited financial support to pursue summer internships at human rights organizations or research projects on human rights issues.

Please e-mail humanrights.program@yale.edu with any questions. If you would like to receive information about the program - such as dates for information sessions or special events—or receive other information about human rights events at Yale, go to groups.bulldogs.yale.edu and join the EliList humanrightsatyale.

The inaugural class of Human Rights Scholars at Commencement 2017

Yale junior Danielle Harris worked at the Scalabrini Centre in Cape Town, South Africa in summer 2019. She worked on Scalabrini’s legal Advocacy team, helping refugees and migrants both with their cases as well as with adjusting to South African society.

Students in the human rights program meet for weekly dinners and other community events.

In summer 2019, Yale senior Marwan Safar Jalani was working in the Middle East and North Africa division of the Human Rights Watch headquarters in New York City. His internship focused on researching the Syrian government practices in checkpoints, detention centers and prisons.

Human Rights Scholars from the Class of 2019 at their Commencement Reception.

Yale College junior, Brenda Cachay, was in DC in summer 2019 with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an entity whose goal is to promote and protect human rights in the American hemisphere through an individual petition system, monitoring, and training.

Joelle Besch (YC '21) worked in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan at For Families, a nonprofit that focuses on creating well-being, respect, and equality for families in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Members of the Class of 2017 present their projects in the Capstone Symposium.

Maria Melchor (YC ’18) spent a summer in Geneva researching immigration detention regimes in North America for the Global Detention Project.

Human Rights Scholars from the Class of 2018 spoke about their projects at the Capstone Symposium.

Undergrad Program

Welcome to the Yale Multidisciplinary Academic Program in Human Rights!

Important Dates